Obama ad: Romney had 'one of the worst economic records in the country' (Updated)

6/4/12 6:14 AM EDT

The Obama campaign is out with its first television ad targeting Mitt Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts, attacking the Republican for having “one of the worst economic records in the country.”

The spot features clips of Romney making familiar-sounding claims about his expertise in job creation during the 2002 governor’s race — “I speak the language of business. I know how jobs are created” — before the spot shifts into attack mode.

“When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs — a rate twice the national average,” the narrator says. “Instead of hiring workers from his own state, Romney outsourced call center jobs to India. He cut taxes for millionaires like himself, while raising them on the middle class.”

The ad closes: “So now, when Mitt Romney talks about what he’d do as president, remember: We’ve heard it all before.”

In some ways, it’s actually a cleaner, less complicated hit than the message Democrats have been delivering on Bain. Of course, Romney has a different read on the facts of his Massachusetts record, and the ability of one side or the other to win an argument over his tenure in the Bay State is going to be determined in large part through a paid media battle that’s only just starting.

UPDATE: And here, via Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul, is Boston's standard response to the Massachusetts attack (and most other attacks): "Having abandoned ‘Hope and Change,' the Obama campaign only ‘Hopes to Change the Subject' from an abysmal jobs report. We're happy to compare the 4.7% unemployment rate Mitt Romney achieved in Massachusetts to President Obama’s weak record any day. President Obama's policies have failed to get Americans back to work — it’s time for a president who has worked in the real world economy and understands how to get this economy moving again."